Joe Canning masterclass sees Galway through to All-Ireland hurling final

Galway 0-22 Tipperary 1-18

Report from John Fogarty for the Irish Examiner newspaper

Joe Canning proved the match-winner here with a stunning point, his 11th of the game, as the minimum again separated Galway and Tipperary.

In front of 68,184, a Brendan Maher long-range free in additional time levelled the sides for a 12th time in an absorbing encounter. But Canning was on hand to send Galway into their first final since 2015.

This latest addition to the trilogy saw several scares at both ends in the second half although the more clear-cut came from Galway, who led by two points on two occasions in the final quarter only for Tipperary to haul themselves back into it through sheer guts.

As might have been expected, Tipperary began better going 0-4 to 0-1 up after eight minutes. Darren Gleeson’s booming puck-outs were causing Galway some difficulty although Galway soon settled and struck the next four points.

Seamus Callanan struck his first point from play in the 15th minute to square matters but Galway enjoyed another burst, sending over three points in a row. Conor Cooney was looking as sharp as the Leinster final and Conor Whelan back to the great form he had shown prior to the Leinster final.

Galway’s failure to clear a Callanan mishit in the 23rd minute led to John McGrath’s goal. Patrick Maher challenged Colm Callanan and while the ball ended up with Adrian Tuohy he wasn’t allowed to raise the ball by John McGrath and he was able to round Callanan to ground-stroke to the net.

Galway responded quickly with a Johnny Coen point to level the game and Whelan fired over his third point of the first half, but Callanan was causing bother again and availed of a Daithí Burke slip only for his namesake in goal to keep out his shot.

Tipperary, though, keep the pressure on, helped in no small part by how their much-maligned full-back line led by James Barry were performing, and Callanan and Brendan Maher sent over successive frees.

Canning hit three first-half wides, one of them from a free, and he picked up a yellow card for a rash foul on Pádraic Maher whose shoulder rattled him in last year’s semi-final encounter.

However, it was Canning who was dishing it out here and he won a sideline shouldering Michael Breen off the field and subsequently sent the placed ball over the bar.

Callanan followed that up with a point despite being initially blocked by Coen and Canning finished out the scoring to bring Galway to within one at the break, 1-10 to 0-12.

As Tipperary prepare to meet Galway for the third year in a row at the semi-final stage of the championship, manager Michael Ryan and his fellow selectors have chosen fourteen of last year’s All-Ireland winning team to start in defence of their title against the Tribesmen on Sunday. It means a return for Darren Gleeson in goal and Michael Cahill at left corner back with James Barry reverting to his customary full back position.

They produced two epic GAA hurling All-Ireland semi-final clashes in 2016 and 2015 and they return for a third instalment next Sunday. Its Galway v Tipperary in the first of the semi-finals (Croke Park, 4.0), with Cork v Waterford coming up a week later.
Galway will play Kilkenny in the minor semi-final as a curtain-raiser to the senior game next Sunday (2.0).
Galway beat Tipperary by a point (0-26 to 3-16) in the 2015 semi-final, with the Premier gaining revenge by exactly the same margin (2-19 to 2-18) last year.

FLASHBACK…2016 ALL-IRELAND SEMI-FINAL
Tipperary 2-19 Galway 2-18
Galway led by 1-10 to 0-11 at half-time and by 2-15 to 0-19 after 62 minutes but goals by John O’Dwyer and John McGrath set Tipperary on their way to a thrilling victory.

*The counties met in this year’s Allianz League final when Galway won by 3-21 to 0-14 in the Gaelic Grounds in April. They led by 0-11 to 0-5 at half-time and second half goals by Jason Flynn (2) and Cathal Mannion helped them to run out easy winners.
*Both Tipperary and Galway have won five and lost five of their last ten All-Ireland semi-finals.

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